PETALUMA, Calif. — Sixteen-year-old Joel Meyers Jr. broke into the winner’s column for the first time in his sprint car career Saturday night, leading all 35 laps of a ragged Adobe Cup at Petaluma Speedway that saw less than half the field survive a fast, hooked-up race track.
Starting on the outside front row, Meyers beat Tim Kaeding at the start to lead the first lap and ultimately survived 10 restarts for yellow or red flag cautions, including a red flag that preserved his lead by reversing a pass by Ryan Robinson.
With eight laps to go, Robinson caught Meyers in lapped traffic to momentarily take the lead as the pair crossed the start/finish line. But the pass, which would have stood up under a split-yellow, was negated when Andy Forsberg, the points leader in the Sprint Car Challenge Tour, made contact with another car and barrel-rolled down the backstretch.
On the restart, Meyers took advantage of clean air and a clear track to jump out to a multiple car length lead that was wiped out by a stalled car in turn two that required a green-white-checkered finish that saw Justin Sanders take over the second spot as Robinson ran out of fuel and fell back to ninth while Sean Becker rounded out the podium after starting 12th.
Meyers said the rash of red and yellow cautions played to his advantage.
“The yellows were a help because it was hard to get through lapped traffic. We were tight all night and almost got upside down a couple of times.” said Meyers, who drove most of the race with a nose wing that was knocked sideways, a testament to a night of hard contact.
In contrast to Meyers, Sanders struggled on restarts, driving most of the race on a tire with a slow leak. “After every yellow or red flag, it would take a few laps for me to get going, but after that we were fast,” he said.
Content to finish second, Sanders said “If I couldn’t win it, I’m glad for Joel who is a good friend of mine.”
A changing race track and the attrition helped Becker recover from a disappointing qualifying time and a struggle in his heat race. “We weren’t very good early on, but the track came to us later in the night,’ said Becker.
Shane Golobic was the night’s hard charger, finishing fourth after starting 20th on the grid.
The first red flag came on lap seven, as Meyers, Kaeding and Robinson were racing through heavy lapped traffic that stacked up like rush hour on a freeway. As leaders and lappers bounced off each other, Kaeding found the car of Isiah Vasquez sideways in front of him. With nowhere to go Kaeding, who had set quick time and won the dash to start on the pole, ended up on top of the front stretch wall, ending his night early.
On the subsequent double file restart, Waye Katen went upside down on the frontstretch to bring out the second of three red flags during the event, but he, Kaeding and Forsberg were unhurt.
The finish:
Joel Meyers Jr. Justin Sanders, Sean Becker, Shane Golobic, John Clark, Tony Gomes, Colby Johnson, Burt Foland Jr., Ryan Robinson, Bradley Terrell, Luke Hayes, Andy Forsberg, Dylan Bloomfield, Wyatt Van Lare, Travis Labat, Landon Brooks, Seth Standly, Peter Paulsen, D.J. Frietas, Tim Kaeding, Bill Smith, Wayne Katen, Colby Fox, Isaiah Vasquez.